Posted 1 year ago on Jan. 20, 2014, 8:04 a.m. EST by WSmith
(2689)
from Cornelius, OR
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Wake Up to Political Reality & News!

Get Straight on Participation & Priorities!

Or Chris Christie Could be Our Next Ronnie Raygun!

While all the Governor's men are crying "foul" on legitimate Democratic outrage and media coverage on Chris Christie's obscene ~ Nixon-like ~ abuse of power ~ criminal abuse of state and federal funds and corrupt engagement of classic RepubliCon dirty tricks ~ the Kochs and other PTBs are Vetting and Inoculating ~ Grooming ~ the next Ronnie Raygun.

If Gov Christie survives Flab-Scam, there's is no touching him in the 2016 Presidential election, largely because of the threat and actuality of repeating this abuse and the perceived dis-credulity of the News Media.

Meanwhile the distracted & divided Left quibbles over non-existent perfection, and remedies for, continuing fallout from, the disastrous Bush-Cheney regime. The blessed with rife-GOP-corruption Left forgets that political war is won on Elections and ignores that the Right has worked tirelessly to Suppress and Game any and all coming Elections!

Crack Down on Media: Flipping of Progressive Radio to Sports or 24-365 RW Sieg-Heil on your Dial, and even more restrictions and bias on MSM to quell news that puts the Right in serious jeopardy. A difficult task without revealing the RW bias in light of the onslaught of news that condemns them.

Phony Outrage Campaign: "I was an Obama supporter for hope and change, but when it didn't happen I hated him!" "Both Parties Same!" "I'm not Voting!" "I'm Voting for a third party!" RepubliCons love the success they had with this campaign in 2010, and have worked to repeat it in '14 &'16.

Voter Suppression: New Laws in various GOP-Governed (thanx to 2010) States, and massive Gerrymandered (thanx to 2010) districts.

A perfect RIGHT WING storm is forming!

People, if you want another Raygun, and the decades of damage that would cause, Keep on Keep'n on! Disunity and petty bickering.

But if you want to stop the fascists and 1% tyrants from exacting much more truly horrendous damage on us, WTFU! Get with the program!

Can we please avoid another Nixon, if I do it, it must be legal, fucking NIGHTMARE!

Big $ calls the shots. AKA, Power Elite or Powers That Be. Plausible deniability, propaganda and a hyper-vigilance trumped up by 9-11 exploitation and applied to police, security and military, keeps us from storming the castles.

Greg Palast | Christie and Koch in Cahoots? It's Time to Subpoena the Committee for Our Children's Future

Thursday, 16 January 2014 11:26 By Greg Palast, Truthout

Far more insidious, more corrosive and dangerously [Nixonian] than the Governor of New Jersey playing traffic warden is the story of Gov. Chris Christie's secret meetings with a gaggle of billionaires - and the legality of the spending by the front organization set up following these hidden hugger-muggers.

In 2012, a tax-exempt "social welfare organization" called Committee for Our Children's Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. The New York Times found some old college chums who said they set up the "Children's" crusade for Christie. But the ads cost about $6 million. The Times didn't ask how Christie's buddies, not wealthy guys, found the six big ones.

But CCF was not started in 2012. When I heard "Children's Future," my nose started twitching. I smelled Koch.

The whiff of sulfur took me back to seven thick investigation binders nearly two decades old - each one marked "KOCH." In Volume 3, I found it: CCF - Campaign for Our Children's Future.

Just days before the 1996 election, "Campaign for our Children's Future," previously unheard of, paid for some of the most vicious smear ads ever run. The nasty blast, disseminated in coordination with a mysterious operation called "Citizens United," accused one Democrat of associating with a child molester (false), another of being "a Jewess" (true) and so on.

Most of the 29 targeted Democrats, blindsided and unable to swing at the phantom "Children" and "Citizens," were creamed. The result, to everyone's surprise, was that the Republicans kept control of Congress.

Everyone's surprise but Charles and David Koch. The head of "Children's Future" confessed to federal investigators he'd signed over $700,000 in blank checks to an anonymous donor running funds through Children's. The money-laundering operation was traced back to a funding source called "Triad Inc." - named after the Chinese mobsters. Triad's front man, facing hard time, swore that all the hidden loot came from Koch Industries, owned by Charles and David Koch.

And that was a crime, one of the two times the Kochs came within kissing distance of prison cells - because, in 1996, before the Citizens United ruling, America still had a democracy, and it was a felony for corporations to slip cash to political campaigns.

And Citizens United? It was, in practice, just one citizen, right-wing-nut billionaire Foster Friess. In 1996, he and rich friends would put cash into Citizens United, which then made campaign contributions, in the exact same amount, on the very same day, to one of their favored politicians. The sums and timing were a "coincidence," said the "Citizens" lawyers. But it looked an awful lot like a crime: an illegal way around campaign contribution limits.

It wasn't just me who thought that Children's Future and the Kochs had committed felonies. Then-Senator Fred Thompson, who's played a lawman so many times on TV he thinks he is one, accused the Koch operatives of creating illegal "sham nonprofit corporations."

That was Thompson's mistake. The Senator was stripped of his powers as chairman of the Government Affairs Committee, denied his demand to subpoena anyone around the Kochs, and his investigation was shut down.

In a parting shot, Thompson wrote: "Triad is important not just for the ways it bent or broke existing laws, but for the pattern it has established for future groups."

And now we know: The "future group" would be, apparently, the re-formulated CCF, now as Committee for Our Children's Future. And apparently, our children want Chris Christie.

But this time around, dumping hidden money into a campaign to boost a politician has been decriminalized by the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling, which threw out charges against the old Friess front, Citizens United.

So who are the men who care so much about our children's future?

There's Still One Law Left to Break

Despite the Supreme Court stripping naked almost all restrictions on political expenditures, the Justices did firmly secure a critically placed fig leaf: "Independent" organizations may not, in any way whatsoever, plan with, secretly coordinate with, make or take suggestions from, nor consult with, a candidate.

The question is, did the Kochs and Christie drop the fig leaf? The answers are a hell of a lot more important than Sopranos-style score-settling like backing up a bridge.

Let's look at the evidence. The hidden funnel of funds into Our Children's Future followed on undisclosed meetings: the first, a two-hour rendezvous between Governor Christie and David Koch in New York in January of 2011. Just the two of them, no one else allowed in.

This concealed chat with Christie was unwittingly disclosed by David Koch himself: He blabbed about it to his billionaire buddies at a closed gathering he organized with his brother Charles. Koch did not know he was being secretly recorded. (Thanks to investigative reporter par excellence Brad Friedman for making the recording public.)

And this was the second secret meeting: The Kochs' closed confab in Vail, Colorado, on June 26, 2011. The guest of honor at the bash: Governor Chris Christie.

But you're not supposed to know that.

Now you may think it's pretty hard for Christie to conceal himself, but the governor did his best. This was some time after Governor Mark Sanford was excoriated for disappearing for a few days, in Sanford's case to meet his girlfriend. Similarly, Christie left off his schedule any mention of his travel to Colorado for the tryst with the Kochs.

Christie was feted at the billionaires' bacchanal - and he returned the favor. The hidden recorder captured the governor saying, "We must cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid." It was Christie tough-guy talk that, notably, he was too cowardly to repeat in New Jersey. He told the awed ultrarich that, by cutting teacher pensions, he could stop Democrats' attempts to tax millionaires.

The first major Republicans elected after the 2008 Obama landslide, the tough-as-nails Garden Stater and the straight-edged Virginian heralded the conservative resurgence in 2010 and pointed the way toward sweeping victories for small-government candidates on the state level. A year ago, both seemed like plausible and even probable 2016 presidential candidates, two representatives of a fresher GOP, anchored in fiscal discipline, support for states’ rights and opposition to public labor.

Now, clouds hang over both the GOP golden boys of 2009. McDonnell’s situation is far graver: As he left office over the weekend, the governor’s Boy Scout image was in tatters amid an ongoing criminal investigation of huge, undisclosed gifts that his family accepted from a political contributor.

Unfortunately, this is just what the right and their ditto-heads love (Brit Hume characterized the criticism of Christie as the "feminization of America"). Facing this doomsday GOP future (gerrymandered/voter-suppressed districts excluded), he's just about the only chance they've got. If Christie survives Flab-Scam, '16 will be 1980 all over again. And the notorious bully will limo into the oval office with a big fat mandate on his shoulder, carte blanche from the House, and daily orders from the 1%. While we are force-fed back to back CMA, Bachelor, Dancing W/Star, Downton Abbey pud'n, lied into more war, hypnotized into more deregulation, and possessed into more tax breaks for the rich. Yee Hah!

Here is the deal. Christie is perfectly aligned with the Teathuglicans. The problem is that he is not accepted by a large portion of Teathuglicans because he is not considered Teathugican enough.

Even though he put the thug in Teathuglican.

Now, anyone that they put up is going to be a shoot back to Reagan. Right now they don't have anyone to run. They are putting them on parade. Rubio and Cruz are also being considered and every Rethuglican governor is chomping on the bit. And then there is good old Jeb.

Yes, you're absolutely right! That's why "they" are so willing to let Christie suffer a feeding frenzy, even chumming the water. But if he survives, he'll be an invaluable, immunized, tool. Any bad blood will be forgotten, or demoted, for ambition and control.

Jeb, I forgot about Jeb. Depending on how this plays out, Jeb is their knight in shining armor w/Christie as Spiro Agnew; or Christie is Raygun w/Jeb as Bush #1, waiting for 2020 or 2024. If sanity prevails ~ precious little these days ~ neither scenario happens and a GOP WH becomes as rare as millionaire teachers, as forgotten as Union Made in America and employer paid pensions.

It won't be forgotten. I'm going to tell you why. The number of people left to bullshit is dwindling. The news and the commentators are geared towards a middle class and up. When you destroy the middle class--which he has diligently tried to do then you run out of people to bullshit.

Further, it is the same shit that the right wing libertopian trolls use here. Teatrash which they see as legitimate. Don't look at Christie as an isolated incident.
Edited for: Christie is not isolated. It's a way of thinking and, more importantly, a way of action.

But I've seen this happen time and time again, things get dismissed by MSM, it's gone, the news cycle revolves, and out of sight, out of mind. I've tried to explain to you and myriad others for 30+ years, that what you know or find out means squat unless it's public. And what the public wants or doesn't want means squat unless they Vote.

No, you WTFU. I don't think reporters are going to give me anything and I don't need to rely on an analysis from someone else.

The news isn't what it used to be and there is such a thing as emotional exhaustion. This is a tactic that is currently being used. The key is to recognize what is taking place.

Now, if listening to people reiterate what you already know OR listening to someone with more visibility say what you already know turns you on then cool. I do my own research and I have other shit to do.

"People are fed up with the bullshit."
People don't know what BS is, or what is BS!

"No, you WTFU. I don't think reporters are going to give me anything and I don't need to rely on an analysis from someone else."
People need to be informed, it's part of Jefferson's plan for our democracy, and what the Loyalists-Tories-RepubliCons hate and want demolished/propagandized.

WTFU- quit infighting (idiot) this is how we lose. Just get out the VOTE!

Try to imagine the distracted, misinformed, disengaged, disenfranchised masses out there (INSTEAD OF JUST YOURSELF) they need info!

I agree. That is an accurate analysis of Christie. On social issues Christie is too liberal for the "Teathuglicans". If he were to be elected President though, he too like Obama would carry out the egregious (to the 99%) neoliberal agenda, no doubt.

No, he isn't liberal on social issues. That is a lie. Christie dropped the same sex marriage case because he wasn't going to win it. That isn't socially liberal. That is recognizing that you are about to waste a bunch of cash to lose.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has accused two aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) of withholding relief aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy out of retribution for the city’s failure to approve a development project supported by the governor. The new accusations come as the Christie administration is facing investigations into lane closures on the George Washington Bridge and whether it misused Sandy relief funds to pay for television ads starring the governor.

On Saturday, during an appearance on MSNBC’s Up with Steve Kornacki, Zimmer shared emails and diary entries accusing Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Richard Constable, Christie’s community affairs commissioner, of delivering messages suggesting that Hoboken would not receive all of the disaster aid it requested unless the mayor approved redevelopment project led by the Rockefeller Group, a New York developer. The project had been put on hold after the Hoboken Planning Board voted against it and declared the area slated for development “in need of rehabilitation.”

Soon after, the Christie administration appropriated “less than 1% of what Hoboken had sought” for Sandy relief, though officials close to the governor promised that the money would start flowing if the Rockefeller development project was approved:

On May 13, Guadagno and Zimmer met at the Hoboken ShopRite. That is where, Zimmer said, Guadagno delivered the first message about the relief aide.

Zimmer shared this diary entry which she said she wrote later that day. “At the end of a big tour of ShopRite and meeting, she pulls me aside with no one else around and says that I need to move forward with the Rockefeller project. It is very important to the governor. The word is that you are against it and you need to move forward or we are not going to be able to help you. I know it’s not right – these things should not be connected – but they are, she says, and if you tell anyone, I will deny it.”

The second warning, according to Zimmer, came four days later. She and Constable, who now led Christie’s department of community affairs, were seated together on stage for a public television special on Sandy recovery. [...]

“We are mic’ed up with other panelists all around us and probably the sound team is listening. And he says “I hear you are against the Rockefeller project”. I reply “I am not against the Rockefeller project; in fact I want more commercial development in Hoboken.” “Oh really? Everyone in the State House believes you are against it – the buzz is that you are against it. If you move that forward, the money would start flowing to you” he tells me.

“I cannot give a windfall to one property owner because the governor and other people want me to do it,” Zimmer told MSNBC.

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak denied Zimmer’s claims. “Mayor Zimmer has been effusive in her public praise of the Governor’s Office and the assistance we’ve provided in terms of economic development and Sandy aid,” he said. “What or who is driving her only now to say such outlandishly false things is anyone’s guess.”

Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor

The Koch Boys set their sights on Pennsylvania to Break Labor & Democrats

Tue Jan 14, 2014 at 06:09 AM PST

by StewartAcuffFollow

Word has just leaked out of the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa that the Koch Boys are talking to severely wounded Republican Governor Corbett to move legislation this winter and spring to outlaw union dues deduction for all state and local public employees.

It is the same kind of legislation Scott Walker passed in Wisconsin and Kasich tried to pass in Ohio.

If such legislation passed in Pennsylvania, it would effectively destroy public employee unionism in this state.

That would then open the door for an omnibus assault on all unions in this labor state.

It would also make it extremely difficult for a Democrat to win the presidential election in 2016. As we all know, Pennsylvania and Ohio are traditionally the two states that tip the balance and determine the winner in presidential elections.

Corbett is a very unpopular governor. People in Pennsylvania have had buyers’ remorse since he was sworn in. He is up for re-election in November. Some think this may in part be a desperate move to pump radical right-wing energy and money into his term and campaign.

Obviously, the wretched Koch boys are pushing because they want to create an American plutocracy that they control and make the 80 percent of us servants to their power and obscene wealth. Their recent history gives us ample proof of that.

Ironically and perhaps propitiously, this fight for decency and dignity in the workplace and democracy is joined as we begin to focus on Dr. King and the meaning of his life, struggle, and legacy. Now more than ever we must claim, hold, and internalize the truth that Dr. King gave his last full measure helping to lead a strike of public employee sanitation workers in Memphis – workers who were on strike for the right to have a union and dues deduction. In his great book Going Down Jericho Road about the strike and Dr. King, Professor Michael Honey discusses at length the issues that led to and propelled the strike forward.

So now as we begin this mighty struggle in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for workers and democracy, let us not just remember but drive ourselves with Dr. King’s actions in the winter and spring of 1968.

This struggle is a struggle over the legacy of Dr. King, what value we place in his life, and whether we honor his memory or degrade his struggle.